"Vintage of the Century" Review of the 2021 Growing Season

“Vintage of the Century” Review of the 2021 Growing Season

By Bill Brosseau,
Testarossa Director of Winemaking

2021 vintage started off with very little rainfall and mild winter weather. These two factors always concern me that harvest will come too early. As we headed into spring, it was unusually cold and windy through May. As the summer approached, we saw warm periods but nothing too extreme. This helped to nudge the vines into a later harvest season than originally projected. Yields ranged from average to below average, thus setting us up for great quality potential. Once we started harvest in late August/early September, the weather oscillated between cool and warm. We had this incredible gentle rolling weather cycle encouraging ripeness at a very slow and steady pace. This circumstance has two-fold benefits of not only exceptional grape quality but as well, a gentle fruit influx to the winery and ability to handle every lot with incredible poise and energy by the well-rested winemaking team.

Weather was foggy in the mornings for most of the summer and harvest, which helped preserve acidity and freshness, yet we did not see any degradation of fruit quality from the moisture. Rains never flirted with the season which is always a blessing when this happens. As a result of the drought, the color of the red wines, to the overall concentration and acidity levels of the wines is nothing short of amazing.

As we concluded the harvest season in mid-October, we could not believe how perfect everything went with the weather and fruit quality. 2021 will go down in the books as one of the best vintages of the century, and we cannot wait to share the resulting wines with you when the timing is right.